


Before Your Father Hears You

by EverythinggStayss



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Behavior, Character Study, Family, Gen, Ghosts, Growing Up, I love this show, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Major character death - Freeform, No Incest, Special training, Substance Abuse, Through the Years, at all, fuck Reginald Hargreeves amiright, im not about that life, so the same as the show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 23:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18398243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverythinggStayss/pseuds/EverythinggStayss
Summary: The Hargreeves siblings through the years before the funeral.They’ll end up killing each other if Special Training doesn’t get there first.





	Before Your Father Hears You

**Author's Note:**

> idek my dudes i just have a lot of feelings about these seven and i wanted to write something. I’m not a writer at all, let alone a great one, but I thought I’d try
> 
> Title from Exit Music For A Film, which is on the TUA soundtrack which I love also I’m not original lol

He’s two when they discover his powers. Four stole his jacket, and Four always spills stuff and he doesn’t want his jacket all sticky. He’s pulling it away from Four, and Four is whining and giggling and pulling so One pulls harder.

The jacket rips. He’s holding a torn-clean piece of fabric. The other half, along with Four, is on the opposite side of the vast room. Four is just as surprised as he is, rubbing his head from the impact.

One panics, because his jacket is ripped and they’re not supposed to be messing around and Dad is going to be so, so mad. There’s a click, click, click of the nanny’s heels and his heart stops as she fusses over Four and sends One to talk to Dad.

His breath is shaky as he recounts the experience to Dad, and he can’t help the boiling, burning shame that coils inside him. He waits for his scolding, _I’m so disappointed in you, Number One,_ but instead there is only the scribbling of pens. Dad is writing in his notebook, a gleam in his eye One doesn’t know how to name.

“Very good, Number One.”

 _Very good!_ One’s heart swells at the praise.

_

He is seven, and Dad has been stressing the importance of leadership. _There is only the success of the team,_ he said last Tuesday, underneath the tree of the courtyard. This is One’s and Dad’s special one-on-one time, and it is One’s favourite part of the week.

One surveys his team as they have their allotted playtime. Two is with Seven, and they are singing some song. Two is a good teammate, but he’s still number two, not one. Seven is not a teammate. She does not have powers, and so therefore cannot be part of his team. He shouldn’t let himself be distracted by her. Or that’s what dad says, anyway.

Three, his absolute best friend, is with Four for some reason. She’s usually with One while Four is with Six. Four and Three are giggling conspiratorially, something about Mom’s lipstick...? He’ll ask Three about it later.

Five and Six are reading side-by-side. Five’s book is full of numbers; he always was the smart one. Six’s book is some sort of classic. One is not one for books, really. He’d rather be moving. Intelligence is important for a team, though, so One understands.

They look relaxed. They look happy. They are comfortable in eachother’s company. Good. It’s not good for the team when they don’t get along.

He shifts from foot to foot, suddenly painfully aware of the fact that he is the only one alone. Dad enters the room at that moment, and relief floods One as he focuses all his attention on Dad.

He doesn’t see the way his siblings stiffen at their father’s presence.

“Come, Number One. Special training.”

Special training? One’s never had special training before, none of them have. He can’t hide the way his chest swells at the attention.

_

One is ten, and his fingers ache. The heavy mass of rock, four times the size of his body, is held over his head. He’s been here for four hours.

He’s doing his best to be patient. To ignore the way the rock cuts into his hands and the way his arms quaver under the weight. He ignores how terrified he is of his muscles failing, crushing him under the boulder.

Dad will be back soon, and he will be so proud to see One has lasted the whole time.

There’s a chain around his left ankle keeping him in place, because the last time it got too much he slipped out from under the rock for a break. Dad did not like this, because quitting was failing and Dad does not like failure. So there’s a chain, and he stays.

The leather soles of his father approach him an hour later, and he unlocks the chain. One sets the rock down, and his body feels so loose and unwound without it that he almost stumbles. Dad is proud of him, and that is worth the pain and the stiffness that he knows will come later.

_

His name is Luther Hargreeves and he is thirteen. He’s not used to having a name yet, and it feels foreign on his tongue. Mom picked it for him, and the others say it suits him.

Dad still calls him Number One. In a way, this is a comfort. Lately his siblings have been... discordant, and he doesn’t understand their insistence on going against Dad and changing the way they’ve always done things.

Dad however, remind him of the mission, of the team, of their job, and he appreciates the consistency.

Four- _Klaus_ is yelling. Klaus is often yelling, and it is headache-inducing in a way that makes him want to throttle Klaus for never taking anything seriously. Ben is hiding in his room, upset for some reason over the last mission.

Five is in Dad’s office, and they are fighting again. Five refused to take a new name. Five has been refusing to do a lot of things lately, always focused on his jumps. Allison says something Big is going to go down soon between them, she can feel it.

His relationship with Diego is tense at best, and he thinks it’s because Diego never got over not being number one. Still, they’re more similar than many of the others. Diego appreciates a good fight. He goes to see if the other boy would be interested in sparring.

_

Five is gone, and the house is quiet.

_

He’s fifteen, and so, so frustrated by his siblings. They aren’t paying attention again. Don’t they understand? What about the mission? What about Dad?

Even Allison is pulling away, drawn to the allure of bright lights and camera flashes.

He wants to punch something.

_

Ben dies, and everything falls apart.

Ben is dead, and he chokes back tears and guilt and blame.

Klaus slips out a window at seventeen and does not come back. Diego leaves after a particularly nasty fight with dad, storming out, shaking with rage. Vanya leaves on the day they turn eighteen, bags packed and jaw set.

At least Allison says goodbye. She’s got a role in some movie, and she is flying very far away from him to fill it.

_

Days blend together into nothing-mission-nothing-mission-nothing-nothing-nothing.

A book hits shelves, and he may not be one for reading but he certainly reads this one, body twitching for a fight. _How dare she?_

_

The mission goes bad, and he awakes with a body that is not his own. He is ugly, and hairy, and he forgets his own size and breaks too many things.

He thanks Dad for it still. At least he’s not dead.

He repeats this to himself every time he looks in the mirror and doesn’t recognize what he sees. He’s not bitter. He’s _not_.

He doesn’t know what he is.

_

He is the only person on the moon. He misses natural gravity and air and _people_. After years of being alone in the house he thought he’d be better at being lonely.

So he does what he’s always done: focus on the mission. He collects samples, relishing in the childhood desire for his Dad to need him.

At least on the moon, no one can see him. _Can see what he’s become._

**Author's Note:**

> Luther is tricky cause he’s Oblivious™️ so your thoughts are always appreciated! 
> 
> I’m obviously not at everyone’s favourite characters yet so subscribe maybe :) if you want to see them. They’ll be coming soon
> 
> Tysm for reading <3


End file.
